Dear Mr. Scudder: -
In reply to your inquiry
about the A's series, I can
only say that it is a thing
that grows of itself, and sug-
gests so many other growths
that I have some difficulty
in keeping myself rigidly to
the line, and avoiding tempta-
tions to leave it.  I can only
tell you how I now feel
about it, not how I know
that it will be.
It will be entirely
psychological, and will
deal, I fancy, only with
a number of common
sensations and emotions
from the standpoint of
evolutional inheritance as
a basic idea.  You have
now, I think, papers on





the childish fear of darkness,
upon First Impressions (better
called Superimposition), upon
the sensation of blue, upon
one sort of musical emotion,
upon a palm-tree, etc.  You
will receive by this, or next
mail, a paper on the thrill
caused by human touch.
Well, here is just a suggestion
- sight, hearing, taste,
smell, touch, should furnish
each a subject.  "Parfum
de Jennesse" might be the
title of a future paper.
"Red", the subject of another.
The whole to be called,["] Thoughts
about feelings", etc.
My dream is of a
small, very artistic book,
- large type, and heavy paper, -





not a very thick book;  for I
fancy, that like the subject
of the supernatural, this
topic will not bear more
than a limited amount of
stretching.
When I shall be able
to finish, I cannot tell.
Perhaps in time for next
Fall - at very earliest.
I can only write these things
at intervals - when they
make me write them:  to
force is out of the question,
and to repeat the feeling
that comes just as it
comes, is often a work of
months - trifling as the
result appears.
Ever very truly yours
Lafcadio Hearn
Tokyo, Dec. 28th  '96
Thanks for kindly answer, about punctuation





P.S.
By the way, I should perhaps have
said that the desire will be, to
some extent, a reflection of the
Karma - doctrine in the thoughts
and the language of Western
Science, - so far as I am
competent to attempt it.  Before
I went to Japan the conviction
of the fact of ancestral memory
was strong in me - I had got
it from the reading of Spencer.
But I must confess that Buddhism
and Shintoism suggested subsequently
a new form of symbolism in
which to put my thoughts, - or at
least a more exact one, as you
would perhaps notice by glancing
at page 423 of my "Two Years
in the French West Indies" - if
you should ever care to look at
the book.
Faithfully ever
Lafcadio Hearn